Zark's

Graves are Rolling in Europe

An idiom from the Ozarks is, "I bet she/he is rolling over in their grave," when something unthinkable to the deceased occurs in the present. 

Remember Czechoslovakia, the eastern-bloc satellite of the old Soviet Union?  From the CIA World Factbook - After World War II, a truncated Czechoslovakia fell within the Soviet sphere of influence. In 1968, an invasion by Warsaw Pact troops ended the efforts of the country's leaders to liberalize Communist party rule and create "socialism with a human face." 

Remember - this was a country flying the Soviet Union flag and completely aligned with its agenda.  After the collapse of Soviet authority, the nation split peacefully (sometimes called a velvet divorce)  into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

  'Old Europe' wary as Czechs take over EU presidency tells that the Czech Republic is about to assume the 6-month rotating presidency of the European Union.  If it sounds to good to be true, it is.  The Time article explains that the Czech president, Vaclav Klaus (I am not making this up) is a critic of the European Union and many fear what he might do in this short EU presidency.  The French even boldly suggested that their outgoing Sarkozy might need to continue some of his agendas, but that was rejected.  The biggest fear is that Klaus will do nothing, perhaps not even attend meetings.  He refuses to fly the EU flag at Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.  Also with the Europeans, old habits die hard.

Ironically, even though Klaus is a critic of the EU, Relations with Moscow could be strained by Czech assumption of EU presidency.  The Czech Republic wants to have closer ties to its eastern neighbors, something that Russia considers encroachment.  Klaus argues that it is his human duty to help them, and hence the tension. With gas from Russia all-important during these winter months, the nations heavily dependent upon Russian energy such as Germany and Italy are understandably anxious about disturbing the bear to their east.  

It is a proud moment for the people of Czechoslovakia.  Through courage and sacrifice, they turned from their past government of oppression.  They have arrived in world government with an attitude, and Europe could be interesting for the next 6 months.

Mmm -  I wonder whether the 40th President of the United States is sitting up in his grave?

The Traveling Salesman Problem

Forgotten in our culture of big box stores and internet 'one-clicks' is the Fuller Brush salesman.  I know of a leader who supported himself through college by selling the product door-to-door, and Billy Graham tells about his experiences as a Fuller Brush salesman in his autobiography.  But I digress.

The traveling salesman problem is essentially, given a list of cities and traveling costs, what is the optimum round-trip route for the salesman?  Mathematicians describe this as a NP-hard problem, or non-deterministic polynomial-time (NP) hard.  Georgia Tech has an interesting website dedicated to the problem.  Computer algorithms for seeking a solution are getting better.  In 1954, the dantzig42 algorithm could solve a route for 49 cities.  In 1987, 2392 cities, and in 2004, 24,978 cities.  As you can expect, the problem gets really hard as the number of cities increases.  The exact number of possible routes for a 3038 city tour is computed by Georgia Tech and the number occupies several HTML pages. 

One of my favorite software tools, Mathematica, has a demonstration of the problem.  The Clay Mathematics Institute, who offers a $1M prize for the solution, also has interesting discussion of the P vs NP problem.

Is There a Danger With Home Geneticists?

There were home geneticists prior to discovery of DNA.  Farmers and garden hobbyists tried many different ways of cross-pollinating and even grafting to obtain different species.  Genetic Engineering becoming a cottage industry? explores the higher technology genetic tinkering that is possible on the kitchen table.  There is a fear among some scientists that amateur geneticists might not have adequate safety processes and could open a 21st century equivalent of Pandora's Box.

DIYbio is an organization founded to link amateur biologists and scientists together.  Hackers aim to make biology household practice explains that DIYbio is teaching amateur scientists how to extract DNA and even perform genetic fingerprinting. The pattern of course, is to mimic what the early computer and hobbyist clubs did for the computer industry.  The idea being, that innovation will occur among the amateur enthusiasts and bring new applications and technologies for life sciences. 

DIYbio has a gel electrophoresis project that can get you started with their community.  As described in Wiki, gel electrophoresis is a technique for separating DNA, RNS, or protein molecules by applying an electric current to the gel.  Sounds pretty cool, doesn't it?  DIYbio estimates you can get started for about $40.

So is this a bad thing?  There is risk in anything.  Educating the public in modern biology and genetics has to be a good thing.  I worry more about crossover diseases from pets or exploring the rainforests than an amateur scientist inventing a new ebola. 

Apollo 8 Nostalgia

NASA has produced a short animated comic with original audio of the Apollo 8 mission.  It is less than 90 seconds long, and I encourage you to watch it.  It shows the first 'earthrise' ever photographed and it discusses the astronauts circling the moon on Christmas Eve and their message to the millions watching and listening on earth. 

The real jewel though, is the original press kit that you can download.  I do not read many typewriter produced documents and the typeface itself is a voyage in time.  It is a truly historical document describing every event of the Apollo mission, with detailed information on the launch vehicle.  I found it amusing that a high speed data link of 2400 bits per second relayed data from the Goddard Space Flight Center's computers to to Mission control in Houston.  The total aggregate data from Houston was 40,800 bits per second - and they were controlling a manned capsule circling the moon!

Complete trivia, but humanly interesting are the Apollo 8 meals.  The average daily calorie total was 2500 calories.  For example, breakfast on days 5 and 9 were: peaches, bacon squares, cinnamon toasted bread cubes and grapefruit drink.  One astronaut was awake throughout the 24 hour earth day.  A lunar day and night is 14 earth days each.

It really is an interesting review.  Something interesting to think about though, what could that NASA team have accomplished with today's technology?

Space Station Resupply Contracts to Smaller Companies

It is tough competing in the space business against Lockheed and Boeing.  Customers are risk-adverse and what program manager ever got fired for selecting Lockheed or Boeing?  NASA Awards Space Station Commercial Resupply Services Contracts tells that Orbital Sciences and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) received contracts instead of the big players.  The combined values of the contracts through 2016 is $3.5 billion.

NASA gives space cargo contracts to start-up firms tells that these new carriers will be responsible for 40 to 70 percent of the U.S. cargo to the station.  NASA decided to award commercial contracts instead of paying for the Russian Progress vehicles to deliver the cargo.  However, the U.S. is dependent upon the Russian Soyuz capsules for manned deliveries to the space station.

It was a nice Christmas present for the two firms, but I applaud NASA giving an opportunity to the smaller players.  Now if we could just close that 5 year gap in manned space flight coming up....

Selling Australia

Everyone remembers Crocodile Dundee - the Australia - themed movie that starred Paul Hogan and educated a generation on Australian colloquialisms.  Joy of the outback tells that movie enticed the world to visit Australia.  The government is hoping the new movie, Australia, will do the same thing 25 years later.

Cruel review drive Nicole from Sydney tells that the actress who plays Lady Ashley in the flick has been devastated by the negative reviews from Australia and abroad.  Curiously much of the criticism is whether she had cosmetic surgery.  (What difference does it make?)  Epic Australia: too much of everything tells that the Australian film industry attempted to make the movie too much - everything is overemphasized.  That can be wearying in an almost 3 hour epic.

I am not a film critic, and I have learned to never publicly criticize anyone or anything because inevitably I will sit next to that person on my next flight or otherwise have to personally defend my criticism.  (God has a special pattern for humbling me.) 

The scenery is gorgeous - tourists will indeed be tempted to visit Australia.  In the movie, Lady Ashley travels to Australia in order to force the sale of her outback ranch.  Circumstances occur that change her heart and she decides to make the ranch a success.  A thread running throughout the movie concerns the early Australian racism toward the aborigines.  This occupies the Lady Ashley and her lover/rescuer - the Drover, as they attempt to protect a young boy from Australian authorities and others with hate in their heart.

It is a long flick, and a bit predictable.  However, it is entertaining and provides a different perspective of life.  The sound track is terrific, and the acting (despite the reviews) is big-film quality.  (Now I will not have to sit next to Nicole Kidman on my next flight.)

Australia is a significant thread in my new novel, Butterflies Escape, and this post's title can be applied differently, as will soon be published. 

The Greatest Day of the Year

"Come, enter into my imagination," the stage manager of Man of La Mancha intrigues the audience.  Similarly imagine a Christmas Bookshelf.  The bookends of the shelf might be John Lennon's "So this is Christmas" and and on the other end, "Joy to the World."  There is angst with Christmas - humans are complex and we have a way of turning a victory into defeat.  There are many, many, people hurting today and there are millions of people that will have a happier day.  Yet I still believe today is the greatest day of the year.

This morning on my pre-sunrise run, there were far fewer out on the trail than usual, but walkers, bicyclists, and other runners were greeting each other with a "Merry Christmas!"  As I would close up to another person, there was an expectancy as I would call out and hear a greeting in return.  Last night I was spinning down for the night and happened to catch Rick Warren's Christmas at Saddleback.  I really enjoyed his message of hope - he is doing a lot of good things.  I'm pleased that Obama has selected him for the inauguration on Jan 20.

Part of the excitement of Christmas is the hope of the new year.  As we end 2008, there are many reasons to hope that 2009 will be a more joyful year than its predecessor.  Recall though, unlike happiness, joy is self-determined.  Happiness wears off, but joy does not. 

The Day Mankind Orbited the Moon

Apollo 8 was launched on December 21, 1968.  Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders traveled three days to orbit the moon ten times over 20 hours.  One of the first reports was, "The moon is essentially gray."  The man known as 'Flight' to millions of Americans, Chris Kraft writes about the Christmas Eve television broadcast where they read from Genesis, "In the Beginning, God created the Heaven and the Earth ..."  In his autobiography he writes, "No eye was dry in mission control.  Nor, I'm told in the newsroom packed shoulder to shoulder with reporters covering the greatest story of their lives."

Hulu has three short films on Apollo 8.  Unfortunately none of them showing the earth rising as Frank Borman read the first ten verses of Genesis.  Instead, one of the film shorts is a 1969 introspective of man's future.  "No one knows where this new phase will end in what triumph or tragedy, but it is clear the flight of Apollo 8 begins a new epoch in the history of man."

Recall what started that moment - a Russian satellite named Sputnik.  October Sky captures the mood of the United States when it discovered that it was behind technologically.  But as the space race continued and the competition between America and Russia waned, it became an achievement for mankind, not a nation.  When the three astronauts circled the moon, the collective world had a catch in its breath.  Mankind had achieved something that had been a dream for thousands of years.  The entire world had reached out and touched the moon.

I think it is time that mankind did something great again.  Let's start the next epochof history today.

Why We Love Music

An Economist article, Why Music, first discusses how much time we spend listening to music.  The average teenager listens 1.5 to 2.5 hours a day.  When I am in my home office, the Sirius satellite radio is never turned off.  Depending upon my mood, it can range from classical (actually pops), Broadway, roadhouse country, American Standards, and rock, but I digress.  The author proposes three hypotheses for the function of music.

Hypothesis # 1 - sex.  Many of the lyrics of popular songs concern romance and sex.  As evidence, musicians always seem to attract the groupies.

Hypothesis #2 - music binds groups of people together.  Like all the Jerry Garcia followers?  Or the painted faces at a Kiss concert?

Hypothesis #3 - music is a combination of accident and invention.  Our bodies were not made for music, but once it started, we attempted to make it better.  Like a kazoo?

Okay, you can probably surmise, I tend to dismiss these hypotheses.  Perhaps a better explanation is that music is a window to the soul.  In an interview, Tom Wolfe said that music bypasses our consciousness and enters directly into the center of our being.  Music Therapy tells that the Chinese have a saying, "Harmony between music and man, harmony between heaven and man".  I think they are close.

The Concern For Desalination

Will the world die of thirst examines a looming shortage - fresh water.  Possibly by 2025, over 1/2 the world will be dangerously short of fresh water.  It is difficult to estimate how much fresh water is really needed for drinking, washing, cleaning, etc.  The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates perhaps 15 liters a day, corresponding to 1446 gallons per year.  That is considerably below what industrialized nations consume - Diminishing standards: How much water do people need estimates U.S. consumption including agriculture and industry at 568,000 gallons per year per person.  Yes, there is a lot of noise in the data.

Many coastal cities such as St. Petersburg, FL, are turning to desalination to obtain fresh water.  It produces 25 million gallons of water a day, but that is only 12% of the capacity of the Jebel Ali Desalination plant in the United Arab Emirates.  A Salty Question tells there are already 13,000 desalination plants in operation, with 120 in Florida, and little under 40 each for California and Texas.

Desalination plants are costly for infrastructure and energy costs.  There are different designs such as reverse osmosis, vacuum distillation, or multi-stage flash distillation.  Regardless of the technology, the problem is disposing of the salty outflow.  If more and more of the world population's water is produced by desalination, we will be wreaking havoc with marine ecosystems.  Basically to produce one gallon of potable water, we will be dumping a gallon of concentrated salt water back into the oceans of the world. 

Sheesh.  We have an unsustainable global population.  Every 5 minutes the world's population increases by 650 - the equivalent of a U.S. population in 3 to 4 years.